Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions 5 Small-Thinking Church Myths You Need to Kill Today

5 Small-Thinking Church Myths You Need to Kill Today

2. My Context Is Different

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a church leader say this, I think we could pay off the national debt.

Look, your context absolutely matters. A city church is different than a country one. Urban is different than suburban. West Coast is not East Coast. North isn’t South. I get that.

But I don’t think I’ve ever heard a leader pull out the “my context is different” argument as a reason for their success (my context is different, and that’s why we’re reaching X thousand people…it can only happen here!!).

I’ve only heard leaders say it to justify a lack of progress.

Leaders trot this out when they want to explain why they’re not able to do whatever someone is suggesting might help them.

But the reality is that you are ministering to people. And people have some pretty universal tendencies. Think about it. In the West, we:

Listen to most of the same music.

Wear the same clothes.

Drive the same cars.

Struggle with love/hate/shame/unforgiveness/brokenness/bitterness.

People are people.

And sure, a few more people drive Priuses and Teslas in Vancouver and California than they do in Montana or Saskatchewan. But that doesn’t mean the Gospel should die because of it.

Your context isn’t that different from anyone else’s as long as you’re ministering to people. And should definitely not be a reason the Gospel can’t move forward in your neighborhood.

3. If You Build It They Will Come

Field of Dreams was a great movie. But the tagline doesn’t make for great theology.

Too many church leaders think their problem is their building or lack of it.

If their church wasn’t portable, it would grow.

If they got out of their ancient building, they’d grow.

If they got into a bigger/smaller/better building they’d grow.

We opened a multi-million dollar broadcast location last year north of Toronto. We had a good year, but I don’t think it was because of the building. Sure, well-wishers and the curious came and checked it out. And then they left.

A building can help you grow, but it won’t make you grow.

Think of a restaurant for a minute. Do you ever go back to a restaurant because of a facility? Probably not. If a restaurant has a great building and terrible food, you’re out of there.

Conversely, there are more than a few hole-in-the-walls that serve amazing tacos that have long lines of people waiting to get in.

You can lead a growing church in a dying building, and a dying church in a great building.

Buildings don’t reach people. People reach people.

4. People Don’t Give

I hear this often, especially in Canada. And actually, the stats would say that Canadians do give less per capita to charities and churches than Americans do. But that doesn’t mean your people have to fit that trend.

Over the last five years, we have worked really hard to raise the level of giving among all ages at Connexus, and it’s worked.

It’s a systems approach we’ve used that has seen us run over 600 people through a budgeting course that has resulted in a ton of financial freedom for our congregation, especially for Millennials. They know we’re for them, and we want them to save for retirement, save for their kids’ education, save for their vacation and give generously. More importantly, we’ve shown them how to do it.

At the same time, we’ve run a multi-tiered approach to raising giving and funding our mission.

The result? We have more money to reach people than we ever have before AND our families have more money for their lives.

Leaders ask us all the time how we do this. The strategy is outlined in detail in a new resource by Joe Sangl and Michael Lukaszewski I’m very excited about called Fully Funded (affiliate link). It’s helped us fund a facility, a growing mission, and online campus and much more, plus helped our families get on their feet. Even in Canada.